Bulletin column - April 29, 2010

These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated.

Issue warrants for duo

Arrest warrants were issued Friday for Pamela Rogers and Michael Schaub, Pullman residents who last month were allowed to undergo drug treatment as an alternative sentence after being convicted of possession of methamphetamine and property stolen from student residences in Pullman during the holiday break.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy Friday filed motions in superior court to revoke the sentences and issue arrest warrants for Schaub and Rogers who were charged with passing notes at the American Behavioral Health Systems where they were undergoing treatment since their March 12 sentencing.

Both entered guilty pleas in court March 12 under a plea bargain agreement to undergo the treatment in the Spokane Valley. In addition to completing the treatment, they were ordered to have no contact with each other.

Pullman police reported most of the stolen property, recovered in a warrant search of the Rogers-Schaub residence on Elm Street, came from student residences which were unoccupied during the WSU holiday break.

Robbery charged in axe case

Kerry E. Morrison, 23, Pullman, has been charged with first degree robbery and attempted robbery in Whitman County superior court. He has been scheduled for arraignment Friday.

Morrison was arrested April 20 in Pullman after officers received a report of a robbery at the Neill Library parking lot. A police report filed with the charge said the suspect stopped the victim’s vehicle in the lot at Neill Library and threatened the victim with an axe. He was charged with taking the victim’s cell phone after demanding cash and being told by the victim he didn’t have any. The report said Morrison struck the victim’s vehicle with the axe. The report said the handle of an axe was found in the library lot.

Morrison was later stopped and arrested on NE Garfield Street in Pullman and identified by the alleged victim at the scene of the arrest. Morrison was booked in the county jail with bond set at $100,000.

Imprisionment suspect sought

A warrant for the arrest of Charles S. Rathbun, 39, Lewiston, a suspect in an unlawful imprisonment case in which a woman allegedly jumped or fell out of a car on the Dry Creek Road, was issued Friday. A $2,500 bail posted by Rathbun for pre-trail release was ordered revoked and a bail of $5,000 was set to detain him after arrest under the warrant.

Rathbun failed to appear in court Friday for a scheduled first appearance.

The unlawful imprisonment charge was filed April 21 after a St. John woman sustained minor injuries along the Dry Creek Road the night of April 18.

An arrest report filed with the charge alleged the victim and the suspect got into an argument at a store in Moscow and then started on a drive to her residence in St. John. The victim said she repeatedly asked the suspect to stop the car and let her out. She told deputies she attempted to jump out of the car when they slowed down going through Palouse and again when Rathbun pulled off Highway 272 onto the Glenwood Road at the intersection east of Colfax. The account said the suspect grabbed the victim’s hair, which was in a ponytail, to keep her in the vehicle.

After they pulled onto the Dry Creek Road from the north end of the Glenwood road, the victim managed to jump out of the car. She said after hitting the pavement she got up and ran to the nearest house to call 911.

Officers said they received a missing person report at 9:16 p.m. that night from Rathbun who called from the Friendly Mart in Steptoe. They then received a call from the victim along the Dry Creek road. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Colfax for treatment of bruises and abrasions.

Rathbun was arrested at Cougar Mart in Colfax and later posted the $2,500 bail with an order to appear in court Friday.